Adapting elements such as, for example, integrated circuit chips (ICs) for service is a major undertaking in the electronics industry. Sometimes such chips are mounted directly upon a substrate and electrically connected to a circuit thereon, the substrate being a part of a circuit pack. More often today, a chip is mounted either alone or with other elements in an enclosure having a system of conductors including external leads or pads for connection to sockets or circuit substrates. The enclosure may take many forms including a partial enclosure, a fully enclosed plastic or glass encapsulation or a container which may be hermetically sealed. Such enclosures serve, inter alia, to protect the chip and other elements from moisture, corrosion and physical abuse.
Most containers which are designed to be fully enclosed have constructed thereon a seat to receive a component such as a lid, usually on an accessible topside portion utilized to install the chip and other elements. Sometimes the seat may be lined with solder or other bonding material, although quite often the seat is made complementary with a mating face on the lid. The seat is metallized and the bonding material is adhered to the lid. Generally, the seat is made slightly smaller than the topside surface of an enclosure so the seat outline can be more precise than the outline of the topside. Also, the lid is often made smaller than the seat so a fillet of bonding material may be developed about the periphery of an installed lid and such fillet is adhered to peripheral portions of the seat to effect a good seal.
Modern electronic chips are generally very small and may contain thousands of devices in a miniature circuit thereon to achieve high speed performance at low costs. Accordingly, the enclosures are also kept small to enhance performance between chips and/or other elements in service and for efficient utilization of space on service substrates. Consequently, the assembly of such enclosures is a problem because of the smallness and/or differences in size of the components and the sometimes tedious procedures associated with registering one component precisely with another. It is especially a problem to assemble such enclosures when components are adapted for special bonding, for example, when hermetic sealing is to follow such assembly.
For the above and other reasons, it is desirable to provide new and improved expedients for assembling one component to another, especially when such components are small in size. It is also desirable to assemble a small component which is light in weight and has a delicate mating face to another component which is somewhat larger and includes a larger mating face. Such assembly should have precise registration of the mating faces, particularly when adaptations are made to effect tight bonding such as, for hermetic sealing. To meet competition, it is also desirable that such expedients be reliable, repeatable and amenable to low cost assembly via mechanization or at least semiautomation.